Modern medicine has provided a heretofore unprecedented level of freedom from the ravages of infections disease. Beginning in the midnineteenth century with the development of antiseptics, extending through the development of sulfa drugs in the early twentieth century, and continuing with the advent of penicillin and other antibiotics in the midtwentieth century, modern medicine has succeeded in attaining a very high level of prevention and cure of infectious diseases. Moreover, the art of vaccine development has reached a level of sophistication such that many infectious diseases, such as smallpox, have effectively been eradicated from many countries including the United States.
Nonetheless, certain highly contagious diseases are still extant and are easily spread throughout the population. Common examples of such infectious afflictions are hepatitis, meningitis, syphilis, and gonorrhea. Because these diseases have long been known to medical science, mechanisms for dealing with patients suffering from such diseases have been developed that minimize the chance of persons becoming infected as a result of exposure to afflicted patients. Despite these mechanisms, contagion of these diseases is still a problem confronting medical workers and public health authorities. Modern science is also confronting new diseases, such as Legionnaires'disease and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), for which no longstanding contagion mitigating mechanism is in place.
One way the spread of disease is reduced or minimized is by protecting a noninfected person from exposure to the etiologic agents of disease by means of a barrier. In the particular case of AIDS, great levels of concern and anxiety are associated with interaction between patients suffering from the disease or persons considered in a high-risk category, and others. Indeed, the concern of the entire population with respect to becoming infected with AIDS is so great that in some instances, children suffering from the disease have not been permitted in schools; medical workers, including physicians, have refused to treat or have expressed reluctance to treat AIDS patients; and other workers likely to come in contact with AIDS sufferers, such as emergency medical service personnel and law enforcement officers, are concerned that they may become infected with AIDS by virtue of their contact with an AIDS patient or carrier. In view of the fatal course of the AIDS infection, these groups of people, as well as others, are not only nervous about dealing with known AIDS sufferers but are also concerned about treating or coming into contact with any individual in the population because such an individual may be an undiagnosed AIDS sufferer, a carrier of the etiologic agent of AIDS, or an AIDS sufferer not showing outward clinical manifestations of the disease.
It is now believed that the etiologic cause of AIDS is a virus. The virus has been designated HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) formerly known as HTLV III. To spread, this viral agent must be transmitted from one person to another--for instance, by contact with the blood and perhaps other bodily fluids of an afflicted individual. In response to the threat of contagion associated with this mechanism of transmission, persons likely to come in contact with the HIV virus have begun routinely wearing or carrying protective apparel that reduces the chance that they will come in contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an AIDS afflicted individual. Indeed, the wearing of AIDS protective apparel is now strongly urged for many health care workers, and the Centers for Disease Control is drafting new guidelines in this regard.
Moreover, nonmedical personnel who may come in contact with AIDS patients or individuals from known high-risk AIDS groups now commonly carry protective gloves to serve as a barrier between themselves and the bodily fluids of AIDS patients or possible AIDS carriers. For example, the New York City Board of Education, at the urging of the City Health Commissioner, is distributing disposable gloves to all city schools in an effort to protect teachers and other employees from contracting AIDS. Such a policy is being carried out in many schools, hospitals, medical service departments, and research laboratories throughout the country.
There is a major problem with the use of bodily fluid protective or barrier apparel. The problem is that the wearer of the apparel cannot determine whether the apparel has been breached or otherwise circumvented unless such a breach or circumvention is noticeable to the wearer. This problem is particularly acute in the case of AIDS, other viral diseases such as hepatitis, and certain bacterial infections owing to the extraordinarily small size, even by microscopic standards, of the microbial etiologic agents of these diseases. There are literally billions of these disease-causing agents in even a microscopic droplet of blood or other bodily fluid. Consequently, an individual, even though wearing a form of barrier or protective apparel, may unwittingly be exposed to an infectious agent such as the AIDS virus because the wearer cannot detect the fact that he is in contact with a microscopic amount of bodily fluid or blood.
This problem is especially acute in the case of protective apparel worn by medical professionals. Such apparel, most especially surgical-type gloves, may have, for instance, microscopic holes or other non-noticeable breaches, e.g. caused by needles from syringes being used to withdraw blood from a patient. These breaches cannot be detected by a medical worker. Dentists face similar threats because small breaches in gloves worn by them may occur from their use of syringe needles, sharp dental instruments, or from contact with sharp teeth. Blood, saliva, or other bodily fluid from a patient suffering from a highly contagious disease such as AIDS can pass through such a breach in the protective apparel and, by going unnoticed by the wearer, expose the wearer to the disease. This is a serious problem because the wearer may be falsely confident that the protective apparel is an adequate barrier to contact with and spread of the disease.
The instant invention significantly allays the fears of medical workers and others concerned about exposure to AIDS or other infectious diseases by virtue of coming into contact with bodily fluids, most notably blood, of persons harboring disease-causing microbes. This is accomplished by incorporating into protective apparel a means for detection of blood or other bodily fluid. Detection occurs by triggering at least one chemical marker for a specific bodily fluid, indicating to the wearer the presence of the specific bodily fluid. It is currently preferred that the means of indicating the presence of bodily fluid to the wearer will be through the use of a color indicator such as a known dye or chromagen. Through the use of this invention, medical workers, teachers, police, and other persons will no longer fail to treat or otherwise interact with AIDS sufferers or with people apprehended as carrying a highly infectious agent. Still further and perhaps more importantly, it will give to these workers a high level of confidence that their chance of becoming infected by an infectious agent such as the AIDS virus is minimized. This confidence will result because this invention permits the user of the invention to easily discern whether he is in contact with a specific bodily fluid that may contain the etiologic agent of disease.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a piece of wearing apparel which, upon breach of the apparel, can indicate to the wearer the presence of such a breach by demonstrating that the wearer is in danger of coming or has come into contact with specific bodily fluids harboring a disease-causing agent.